(I want to listen to this sermon)

As the Christmas season is approaching I want to spend a few weeks preparing us for the miracle that was the Incarnation.

To that end for three weeks I want to begin by looking at three Psalms found toward the end of the Psalter. With God's help we'll look this evening at Ps.147 and then in coming weeks we'll consider Pss.148+149.

These Psalms belong to the last five Psalms recorded for us in the book of Psalms. And each of these Psalms both begin and end with the same phrase – Praise the LORD! Or Hallelujah! Indeed the last Psalm, Ps.150, ends with a repetition of the phrase – a double "Praise the LORD".

As we study these Psalms together we will of course be looking to see how they lead us on to think not merely of God the Lord but of the God who became man. In other words we'll be looking to see how these Psalms might help us to consider our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

So let's now turn to Ps.147. We'll start by giving a rapid overview and then will consider the first six verses in more detail.

The Psalm divides naturally into three sections: vv.1-6; vv.7-11; and vv.12-20. You can see that quite easily with the imperatives that we find in vv.1, 7 & 12 where we read:

Praise the LORD – Sing to the LORD – Praise the LORD

(In v.12 the psalmist actually uses a slightly different construction – his "Praise the LORD" is not Hallelujah as in v.1 and v.20 but something more like "Celebrate the LORD" or as the NIV has it "Extol the LORD".)

After each of these commands the psalmist supplies abundant reasons just why the believer should behave in the way he is encouraged to do so. The psalm speaks of God's general goodness towards the world and more specifically it speaks of His special mercy shown to the church.

In vv.1-6 the theme is the God who redeems and deals with how the LORD God takes care of Zion or, we may say, the church.

In vv.7-11 the theme changes to the God who cares with a particular emphasis upon the fact that He makes particular provision for the lowly.

In vv.12-20 the focus shifts again and now centres upon His commands and the power of His word which is used in favour of His people.

Now we are in a position to concentrate our attention upon the first 6 verses of the Psalm – the God who redeems. As we do so we should be led to clearer views of our Lord Jesus who came to earth in order to become our Redeemer.

The first thing the psalmist does is to tell us that we really should be people who praise the LORD. He doesn't simply lay a duty upon us but he argues persuasively that this is really what we ought to do.

Firstly the God we are to praise and worship is no unknown God – we are not in the dark like those folk in Athens who had built an altar to the "unknown god". The psalmist is exhorting the people to praise the LORD – that is to praise the God who has made Himself known to His people, the God who has entered into covenant relationship with His people, the God who has made promises to His people, the God who has intervened again and again on behalf of His people.

Yes, it would be difficult to meaningfully worship a God that we knew nothing about and with whom we had no relationship but that is not the case for us!

And the psalmist adds reasons why we should indeed do what he is encouraging us to do.

1.       It is good to sing praises to our God. In the light of who He is and what He has done for us the natural and totally appropriate response is that of thankful praise. It is a good thing to do. It is right and proper. There is nothing whatsoever amiss with such behaviour – it is good and wholesome – it shows that at least something in our lives is functioning as it should! There is reality here – we are not called upon to mouth vanities and inanities but to sing the praises of the LORD our God. Seeing He is so exalted in His being and majestic in His holiness it is surly the right thing for us to do to declare it. Why should we refuse to sing? Any such refusal would not be good because it would suggest that God is not worthy of our adoration and our praise!

We all want to know how we should live our lives and here is one thing which is sure and certain – praise to our Almighty God should characterize our lives.

2.       Not only is it good to praise God but our psalmist tells us that this is a pleasant thing to do! And don't we know the truth of this? Singing lifts our spirits doesn't it? It helps take us out of ourselves and the self-centredness that so often marks us as we look away from ourselves to sing about God, His greatness and His perfections etc. And as we remind ourselves in this way of just who He is and what He has done for His people how often that enables us to get a clearer perspective on our own problems and worries!

3.       And thirdly such praise is fitting. It is fitting because God Himself is so utterly and completely praiseworthy but it is also fitting for the people of God, made in His image, to acknowledge their own dependence upon Him. What more appropriate behaviour can you imagine for a people who have been chosen, called and saved by such a God than to give suitable expression to their gratefulness to Him in joyful exuberant praise.

In the verses that follow the psalmist continues to provide us with good reasons for praise and worship as he describes for us just what it is that the LORD does for his people – let's go on to investigate what he's got to say.

Jerusalem was the place that the LORD had chosen where His presence would be made known and where acceptable worship would be offered. Now in our day the place where such things occur are in the church. In the NT the emphasis no longer falls upon a physical city but upon the people of God, the church of God. And yet as we turn to the NT we still find an emphasis being laid upon this building up going forward. God's ways in the OT are matched by similar activity in the NT!

Jesus declares:

Mt 16:18 "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

And He does so by functioning is just the same way as the LORD God functioned in the OT! He gathers the outcasts!

He didn't come for the self-righteous, for those who considered themselves to be something special, rather He came for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He declared that He had come to seek and to save that which was lost. As He looked out on the crowds He saw them as sheep without a shepherd and had compassion on them. He was known as a friend of the tax collector and the sinner – those classes despised by the religious elite. He described His Jewish disciples as His sheep but went further to declare that He had other sheep that didn't come from the same fold. And so He had good things to say about the Samaritan and He responded to the faith of a foreign Syro-Phoenician woman.

In fact Jesus was to behave in just the way the LORD God said He would behave in Is.56:8 where we read:

"The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.”

Small wonder then that one of the titles of the Incarnate Jesus in the NT is that of Saviour of the World!

As the psalmist continues he explains something of the manner in which God goes about His mission of saving the outcasts. He does it in a kind, tender and restorative way. And He does so for folk who have no claim upon Him! Remember how Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan? Well the man the Good Samaritan helped was unknown to him, having no claims upon him and yet the Samaritan helped him in binding his wounds.

Now let's slow down and take a look at what the OT has to say about healing the broken hearted and binding up the wounded.

Far from despising the broken-hearted the Lord has a special regard for them – listen to these declarations made in the Word of God:

Ps.34:18 "The LORD is near to the broken-hearted and saves the crushed in spirit."

 Or again:

Ps.51:17 "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise."

And these same qualities predicated of God in the OT are predicated of the Messiah to come:

Is.61:1 "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;"

And it was to just such a verse that Jesus referred when John the Baptist sent messengers anxious to know whether Jesus was indeed the Messiah or whether they had to await the coming of another. As we look into the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus surely we can see Him healing the broken heart of the widow of Nain as she sadly accompanied her dead son for burial and the Lord restored him to her. Or again for Mary and Martha as He raised Lazarus from the dead.

How was it that He could heal the broken-hearted? Because their suffering was not something to which He was a stranger. He groaned with deep longing for the rebellious inhabitants of Jerusalem. And He was to die on the cross of a broken heart Himself! And so to those emotionally drained and spiritually struggling our Lord called out and still calls out:

Mt.11:28-30 "Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

The second half of the verse talks of the "binding up of wounds" and this too is a theme which receives quite a treatment in the OT. There are two distinct though related ideas to be found.

A.       God Himself sometimes heals wounds that He Himself has inflicted – the wounds of discipline.

Job.5:17-18 "Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he binds up; he shatters, but his hands heal."

Such treatment is explained for us in the Book of Proverbs:

Pr.27:6 " Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy."

Sometimes it is not always easy to maintain such a focus as Job himself illustrated as he gave expression to his own lack of understanding of just what was happening to him:

Job.9:17 "For he crushes me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause;"

B.       Sometimes the wounds God heals are those inflicted by the foolishness of our own sin:

Ps.38:5 "My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness,"

In either case – how gracious God is not to allow us to sin with impunity! Praise God that He allows us at times to feel and to know the consequences of our sin. Sin hurts as it offends God and cuts us off from Him. Are you aware of anything of that pain, have you ever been wounded because of your sin, do you know anything at all of that? If you do you have much cause for rejoicing! Because there is one to whom you can go, one to whom you can apply for healing! Unaware of the wounds of sin you'll never apply to the Saviour!!

And what do we find in the NT? Well again and again we find Him healing the sick – dealing with those who were sick in body as well as those sick in soul.

The psalmist anticipates such a question and immediately proceeds to answer it.

Who is the God he is speaking about? Well it is the God who has abundant power and measureless understanding! (vv.4+5.) It's as though the psalmist is telling us – just take a look up into the night sky – do you see all those stars? Well you can't count them all can you? And the scientists in the 21^st century can't number them either. But God not only knows how many there are – He determined how many there should be. He has a name for each one – that is He knows all about them what they are like, how big they are, what they're made up of. Don't you realize that God is amply big enough to see, know and understand your situation? If He's able to deal with the stars surely His power is sufficient for your case!!

Pride lies at the origin of so much of our sin. How we like to puff ourselves up and to imagine ourselves to be pretty important in the scheme of things and yet we can't come to God in that way. And that is good as we can stop pretending we're something we're not – we can stop trying to impress God we can stop trying to earn some kind of merit and simply come as we are – poor, weak and needy!

And that is just the kind of person He loves to help and to life up!!

Mary understood that as she declared what we now call the Magnificat. Initially she had struggled to understand the enormity of what the LORD was calling her to be a part of. But then when visiting her cousin Elizabeth she does come to a deeper appreciation and speaks out in praise.

She'd been chosen even though of humble and low estate (Lk.1:48) and goes on to declare that that is the LORD's typical pattern of behaviour:

Lk.1:51-53 "He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away."

Our LORD Jesus then when He came chose 12 ordinary men, fishermen for the most part, to be His disciples. He changed the thinking about the status of women and children. He had time for servants and slaves, he had time for those that society despised and had given up upon. He continues to do so today.

As Paul could write to the church in Corinth worldly qualifications had no importance to play in who was to be a member of His kingdom:

1Cor.1:26 "For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth."

Rather:

1Cor.1:28 "God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,"

So as Christmas approaches and we prepare for another festive season let us remember just what type of LORD came into the world and as we think on Him we'll most surely find that "it is good to sing praises to our God".

Amen.